Why Use Menus?

Menus are useful for keeping a site better organized, and they help users navigate the site more easily. Most websites feature a navigation menu at the top of every page that directs users to specific pages across the website. Some examples of typical navigation menu items are “About,” “Contact,” “Help” and “News.”

Creating a Menu

To create a menu, follow these steps:

1. From the Dashboard of your WordPress site, hover your cursor over the “Appearance” link in the left-hand menu (see image above). 
2. From the menu that displays, click “Menus.”
3. Next, provide a “Menu Name” and click “Create Menu.”
4. After creating your new menu, under “Add menu items,” check the Pages, Posts, Custom Links or Categories you want your menu to feature, and then click “Add to Menu.”
5. Now that you have selected the items to build out your menu, check “Display location” under “Menu Settings.” Note: For a top-level menu on the front page of your website, check “Website navigation.”
6. Finally, click “Save Menu.”

Tip: Now that the menu has been created, preview the site’s actual homepage to ensure that it looks correct.

Using “Customize” To Edit Your Menu

An easy-to-use alternative to the approach mentioned above is the “Customize” function. Like the “Menus” function, this feature is found under the “Appearance” section of the dashboard. This method is great for making quick changes while giving you a preview of how your menu will appear on your site. Below is a brief, helpful video from WordPress detailing how this process works.

Menus Training

Our Site Administrator training provides a look into building out menus for a WordPress site. Content maintainers interested in learning more about this process should consider registering for this training.